Sonic The Day After Tomorrow
by FunnelVortex
Summary: Sonic and friends struggle to survive and find answers to the growing superstorm. But it is not as all as it seems as a shocking twist takes everyone by suprise. (Contains Sonic x Sally, Tails x Cream. Hints of Knuckles x Blaze, Sam Hall x Laura)
1. The Begining

All around, all that could be seen was a vast white expanse that met the horizon. Above the horizon, all that was seen was a vast, empty, clear, blue sky, only interrupted by a few wisps of cirrus. The sun shone bright in the sky, it did not set, nor will it for a couple of months.

Despite the abundant sunshine, it was cold here, very cold, so cold that life couldn't possibly survive. Yet, in the middle of the infinite whiteness, a group of figures stood. The figures wore thick fur coats, boots, and goggles to protect them from the cold air and the wind that blew through the frozen landscape unaffected by mountains or trees, for there were none, just a flat, icy, desert.

A red figure stroked his dreadlocks as he stared off into the great white yonder, admiring it's frozen beauty. In the middle of thought, he heard a voice from behind, "Knuckles," it said "Are you staring off into space again? We have a job to do here!" Knuckles, startled, turned around to see that the voice belonged to a large green crocodile, "Sorry, Vector" Knuckles said "I was just deep in thought." "Well, the boss isn't going to take any excuses" Vector said with a serious voice, "USGS and NOAA want these ice core samples by this weekend." "Alright" Knuckles said with a sigh.

Knuckles and Vector were part of a climate research expedition in Antarctica lead by scientist Jack Hall. Jack Hall is a human scientist who has devoted his life to studying weather and climate, he has lead several expeditions to the Arctic and Antarctic, including the one Knuckles is currently a part of. Vector signed up for the expedition because he heard it was well-paid, his interest in locating objects and his strength got him accepted. Knuckles' ego is what brought him in, the echidna wanted to show off to his friends that he can handle it, his strength and climbing skills are what got him accepted. During his time in training and on the expedition, he made great friends with Jack and learned a lot about the weather and climate from him.

The team was composed of five members, Jack, Vector, Knuckles, and human scientists Frank, and Jason. Their job was to collect ice core samples for USGS and NOAA. These agencies would study them to learn more about the past climate.

They were stationed on the Larsen B ice shelf and all had to live in a small hut the size of two classrooms. It was cramped, but comfortable. Some nights they hardly got much sleep because Vector had his music cranked up all night. Their equipment was state-of-the-art. Millions of dollars worth of drills, vehicles, and storage containers were at their disposal.

Knuckles went into the metal hut to grab his ice drill; he walked through the double entrance that looks like an airlock. The double door design was created to trap the heat inside the hut. On his way to the supplies room, he noticed something strange in the weather center. He walked into the little room filled with instruments that measure temperature, humidity, wind, and pressure, as well as other things. But the instrument that had his attention was not any of the atmospheric instruments; instead, it was the seismometer, and it was showing tremors of 2.5 and 2.8. Knuckles knew that the seismometer showing this much activity could only mean one thing.

Knuckles ran down the hall and barged into Jack's office, a surprised Jack sat at his desk behind his laptop. "Knuckles," said Jack "you didn't knock. You always knock on my door when I am working." "Sorry, Jack" Knuckles replied, "but this is a serious emergency!" Jack looked confused, "Emergency?" he asked, "What is happening?" "Come on" Knuckles replied, "I will show you."

The human got up and nervously followed the echidna down the hallway to the weather center. Knuckles showed him the seismometer, "It's absolutely going nuts, Jack." Jack looked at the readings, and indeed, it was picking up unusual activity. "The ice shelf is unstable and is going to collapse" Knuckles concluded.

_Deep under the surface, the ice was being melted from bottom up. As it heated, it expanded, and then melted; causing the ice to crack, the water from the melting ice further accelerated the process. The ice split at weak points, which set off the tremors that the seismometer picked up. To make matters worse, the team was based on top of a system of cracks within the ice._

_ This location was chosen for the ice being softer on this crack system making it easier to drill. The weak zone was like a geographical fault line that stretched from one end of the ice shelf to the other. Suddenly, a major "fault" within the ice split, causing the rest to go in its wake. The shockwaves from the split reached the surface, but this time they would be bigger_.

"Where is Knuckles?" Vector asked with an annoyed tone, "He should be back out here by now!" The ice rumbled and shook for a brief moment, "What the hell was that?" asked Jason, the ice shook again. "It's just an ice tremor," Frank replied, "don't worry about it" Vector, however, grew increasingly worried as the tremors continued. Just then, Knuckles came running out of the hut. "Everyone listen," he yelled, "The ice shelf is unstable and is going to collapse. Me and Jack radioed Vostok to send a plane to evacuate us." "Where's Jack?" asked Vector. "He is getting his gear on," Knuckles replied, "he will be out shortly, just pack up the samples and lets go!"

Minutes passed and the ice core samples were packed up and ready to go. Jack was in his office packing what he could. He packed his laptop, his papers, and a photograph of his son, Sam, which he kept on his desk. He heard a buzz come from over the horizon, _Must be the plane,_ Jack looked out his office window only to have his theory confirmed by a red shape coming in. The plane landed just 100 yards away from the hut. Jack took one last look at the office and started down the hall. Just then, the ice shook again, but this time violently, Jack was only halfway down the hall when he was knocked over and the contents of the box spilled out on the floor.

Outside, expensive equipment fell over as the shaking continued. Vector looked beneath his feet, and he saw a crack appear in the ice, the crack grew, and was racing straight for the hut. "Come on lets go!" Vector yelled, "Don't worry about any of the equipment or your stuff, just grab the samples and get on the plane!"

Knuckles looked back at the hut "Jack!", Knuckles raced for the hut as fast as he could. "No Knuckles," Vector cried, "it's too dangerous!" Knuckles ignored Vector's warning and continued for the hut.

Inside, Jack watched as a crack appeared on the floor before him, he raced to pick up what he could of the box. Objects fell all around him, a shelf fell over and barley missed him. Then suddenly, the shaking stopped, all was quiet for an eerie few seconds. Then a chasm opened up from the crack in the floor, dividing the hut in half, Jack was trapped. He stared down into the blackness of the abyss as scraps of wood, metal, and chunks of ice dropped in.

Knuckles entered the hut to find his friend on the other side of the abyss, "Grab my hand" he said, but it was too late for that. Larger ice chunks were now spilling into the growing chasm, including the one that supported Jack's half of the hut.

Jack's half tipped in to the chasm, luckily it got wedged at an angle of 45 degrees. The small building's contents began to slide into the abyss. Jack grabbed on to a rail as he watched his files, laptop, and most of his belongings, fall into the dark chasm. Instinctively, he saved Sam's picture from dropping into the darkness.

The chasm was no longer small enough to keep Jack's side of the hut wedged in, and it gave way. Jack fell into the abyss with the hut just below him. Without hesitation, Knuckles immediately glided down into the abyss and grabbed Jack. Knuckles aimed for the chasm wall and drove his sharp knuckles into it. Jack climbed onto Knuckles' back and was holding on with all limbs except his left arm, in which he grasped Sam's photo.

They looked down into the chasm, at this point it was wide enough to allow sunlight to reach all the way down. The darkness slowly faded revealing the cold, deep, dark, churning waters that made up the bottom of the abyss. Knuckles used his fists and cleat boots to climb to the top. Knuckles threw Jack over then soon pulled himself up onto the ice. The two got up and ran for 50 yards, they briefly looked back to see the second half of the hut and all the vehicles and equipment disappear into the chasm.

Jack put Sam's photograph in his coat pocket and walked with Knuckles toward the plane. They looked back at the chasm where their site once stood. Everyone was silent in shock, Jack and Knuckles seated and strapped themselves in, the pilot gave the announcement of takeoff and the plane sped down the icy landscape and took off into the air, up there the passengers could see the extent of the event.

The chasm had now grown to a narrow strip of blue water that extended from horizon to horizon. "D..d..did you save the ice core samples?" Jack asked nervously. "Yes Jack" Jason answered. "Mission successful, it was a great expedition guys" said Jack, trying to sound optimistic after his close encounter with death.

Jack turned to Knuckles, who was sitting next to him. "Knuckles," he said, "I was going to talk to you about this earlier, but then the ice cracked" Jack took a deep breath, he then continued, "Vector has been telling me that you have been staring off into the landscape a lot recently, what's wrong?" Knuckles took a moment, but he replied "I was just wondering what would happen if the world froze over." Jack sat silently, processing this thought as the plane flew further into the blue yonder. Vector suddenly spoke up, "So," he said, "When do I get paid?"


	2. Reunions

A blue streak sped by, it broke the sound barrier leaving a sonic boom in its wake. As the blue blur speeds down the lush green hills, the palm trees bend momentarily due to the wind gust following the blur. The blue blur was no other than Sonic the Hedgehog.

Sonic ran nonstop throughout the Emerald Hill Zone. He used his quick step to dodge obstacles and used his homing attack to destroy Eggman's robots. Sonic briefly looked behind him to see buzzbombers closing in on him. "So Eggman thinks he can stop me with his stupid buzz'buts" said Sonic with a laugh. The buzzbombers began to fire, Sonic dodged their blasts with his quick step, "you're too slowww!" Sonic mocked the robots.

Sonic located a half pipe-like structure 600 yards away, he then had an idea. He curled up into a ball and used his spindash and raced for the structure, the blue ball shot up vertically up into the air, then he used his homing attack to destroy the buzzbombers.

After running through the zone for a while, Sonic realized he was now where he needed to be. "Come on Eggman," said Sonic, "I know you are here!" Nothing. "I'm waiiiiiiting" Sonic said impatiently while tapping his foot. The eggmobile hovered in, Eggman laughed like a maniac ending in a cough. "HOHOHO, Sonic, there is nothing you can do, for I have created the ultimate weapon" The mad doctor yelled, "BEHOLD, the Death Egg MK-whatever, HAHAHHAHAHA!"

Eggman revealed his latest space station. Sonic just sighed, "ANOTHER Death Egg? You can't be serious" Sonic said annoyed, "Well, I'm out of here." Sonic started on his way out of the scene. "WAIT, DON'T GO" the mad doctor begged, "This one is different, I swear!" Sonic stopped and looked back "Okay," he said, "but this better be good."

Eggman pressed a button on the dashboard. The new Death Egg began to change, it seemed to divide in regions and converge in others until it looked like a mechanical mess, but then, the mess reformed into a figure, a giant robot which, like most of Eggman's robots, resembled Eggman himself.

It had guns, rocket launchers, and laser canons. "BEHOLD" Eggman yelled, "The Eggbeater!"

Sonic just yawned, "This is new and all, but the eggbeater? How much more lame can you get?"

Eggman looked at Sonic, "Whatever," said Eggman, "well anyways, where was I? Oh yeah. This machine is the biggest, baddest, robot ever created, it has firepower of 3000 armored warships and a metal skin 6 yards thick, I also forgot to mention, it is powered by your little friends!" This surprised Sonic, Eggman hadn't used animals as batteries for years. "Well, have fun" Eggman said before flying off in the eggmobile.

Sonic looked at the Eggbeater in awe, the power core was in visible sight, he proceeded to attack it with a spindash, but then he remembered, "It is powered by those helpless animals," he said "If I destroy the core, it would hurt them! Or worse!"

The robot took aim and fired its machine guns at the hedgehog; Sonic ran and dodged the bullets. "Awwww man, this is not good, how do I bring that thing down without harming the animals inside?"

A missile exploded next to him, Sonic was startled and began to use quick step to dodge the missiles. "I am going to have to disable it somehow, but the skin is too thick!"

Sonic looked for a weak spot. He spotted a exposed section of the robot's neck. Sonic picked up speed and darted for the Eggbeater's leg. He used its foot as a ramp and was running vertical up its leg.

Sonic jumped as soon as he got to the robot's joint and latched on to it's arm. As he continued his climb up the robot's arm, hatches began to open up from it's shell, revealing rocket launchers. Rockets began to fire and Sonic jumped and dodged every last one.

Sonic was now to the exposed section of the neck. He went inside the hole in the robot's armor, only to find a small room with equally armored walls and a monitor. "Wha' the…?"

The monitor turned on. Eggman came up on the screen.

Eggman laughed. "Oh, you silly little hedgehog!" Eggman said, "Did you think I was stupid? You think I would leave a vital area of my robot exposed?"

Sonic was frustrated, "Eggman, what is this about!" "Isn't it obvious hedgehog?" said Eggman, "You fell into my trap!"

Sonic just laughed, "Eggman, I've broken out of your traps before, what makes you think you have me this time!"

Eggman grinned. "Oh Sonic," he said, "This is not one of those 'steel door suddenly comes down and get surrounded by robots' traps, this is a different kind of trap!" "What do you mean?" Sonic asked. Eggman looked at Sonic in the eye, "I'm glad you asked," he said, "I know how you think, Sonic. I know how you are willing to make sacrifices for the greater good in desperate situations. I am wondering if you could make THIS one!"

The monitor switched to a view of the power chamber. Animals were restrained to the walls with energy braces that sucked out their energy. The camera zoomed in to one of the subjects. Among the animals was a female mobian chipmunk with red hair, puffy cheeks, and only wearing a pair of blue boots and a blue vest.

"Sally!" Sonic said recognizing the mobian.

"Oh, you see Sonic. The only way to disable this thing is to destroy the power core, thus harming your girlfriend! That is unless you have all seven chaos emeralds, but you cant get them, because I have the seventh one right he… Hey, where did the emerald go?!"

As Eggman was distracted looking around for the emerald, Sonic made a break for it. He ran out of the room. Coconuts' voice sounded from the monitor, "Boss, he is getting away!" Eggman perked up, "Eggman to Eggbeater, get that hedgehog!"

The robots inside the Eggbeater's control room responded to Eggman's orders. They could see Sonic getting away on their monitors. The lead Eggpawn gave a "yes sir" gesture and pushed a button on it's panel.

Sonic ran through the scene at moderate speed. The Eggbeater sprouted massive rocket boosters and accelerated for him. Sonic knew his aerodynamics, he knew because of the Eggbeater's shape, it could only go a certain speed or else it would fall to the ground.

Sonic ran faster, and faster. The Eggbeater started to lag behind him. He stopped when it was a distance behind him. Sonic looked back. He would either save himself harm Sally, no, that would be selfish. But if he doesn't do something, he is toast!

He realized Eggman had him right where he wanted him. Sonic was in a situation where he had to choose between Sally, and himself.

Sonic had to choose quickly, the Eggbeater was getting closer. Sonic took off running again, then he remembered, "Eggman said something about having all seven of the Chaos Emeralds!" he said, "And Eggman lost one, that means it's in this zone somewhere! I already have six, I just need to find number seven now!"

While running, Sonic tripped over something. He looked at the object he tripped over; it was a glowing green gemstone which seemed to have life itself. "Well," Sonic said with a smile on his face, "This is lucky". The gem was no other than a chaos emerald; he had all seven.

The Eggbeater had caught up to the tripped Sonic, planted it's feet on the ground. and aimed its giant laser canon at the hedgehog. Sonic saw its huge shadow crawl over him; he looked up and was staring right down the charging barrel of the laser canon. He gasped as it fired.

Sonic was enveloped in a bright beam of light. The beam subsided, revealing not a vaporized chunk of earth, but a shining gold hedgehog whose quills stood on end and sparkled like there were stars in his fur.

"Ooooh, too bad" Super Sonic mocked the robot, "I guess you weren't expecting that, were ya?".

Sonic, in his super form, could now penetrate the thick shell safely disabling the machine. Super Sonic flew toward the robot and smashed through its arms. The robot tried to fire it's guns at the golden hedgehog, but the bullets bounced off his fur.

Sonic turned around and stared at the Eggbeater, hovering. He took aim at its head and charged up. Sonic flew at the Eggbeater's head in a sudden burst of speed. He penetrated the armor and destroyed the control room.

Sonic came out the Back of the Eggbeater's head, he watched the machine topple and crash into the ground with a loud thud.

"That was too easy," Sonic said with a laugh. He powered down and the emeralds dispersed.

Sonic now realized the robot was deactivated and it was now safe to smash open the power core. With one mighty spin dash, the core was smashed to smithereens; animals escaped for their energy shackles had been deactivated. Sonic watched the critters happily go back to their homes in the wild, but then he remembered, "Sally!"

Sonic navigated through the wreckage calling Sally's name. A flicky came up to Sonic and circled his head, "What are you doing little fella?" Sonic asked. The flicky seemed to be telling Sonic something, it then made a gesture that said "follow me!"

Sonic followed the flicky through the wreckage; he was led to a group of critters standing around a certain spot in the rubble. Sonic walked up to the group and the animals split to let him through. Lying there was Sally.

Sally was unconscious, but alright. Sonic lifted Sally's head up and spoke to her. Sally's eyes gradually opened, she found herself staring straight into Sonic's green eyes.

"S..So…Sonic…?" Sally spoke in a soft voice. "Sally!" Sonic said in excitement, "You're alright!" Sonic hugged Sally and Sally hugged back.

Sonic and Sally had been the best of friends since childhood, they laughed and played with each other, and they fought alongside each other in the war as part of a group called the Freedom Fighters. The war is now over and the Freedom Fighters have been long since disbanded, but Sonic and Sally still were the best of friends, kept in touch, and saw each other regularly. But they haven't seen the rest of their old FF squad ever since the end of the war.

"Now that I saved you, I guess you owe me a kiss, huh?" Sonic asked with a laugh. "Nnnnope" Sally said playfully. "Aw shucks" Sonic said, "Well, can you tell me what happened, at least?"

Sally told Sonic a short tale of how she was feeding the flickies when one of Eggman's robots kidnapped her (as well as the flickies) and put them in the power core. "That is mondo uggglyy" said Sonic, "but you knew I would save you, didn't ya!" "Oh please" Said Sally, annoyed.

Eggman paced back and forth in front of his minions, Scratch, Coconuts, and Grounder the depths of his base. His eye was twitching and he was growling with anger.

"I thought I told you to hold on to that emerald so Sonic would not get it!" Eggman barked at the chicken and digger robots, "Because of you nincombots, the plan failed!"

Scratch and Grounder had gotten into a fight over the emerald and dropped it out of the eggmobile back in Emerald Hill.

"Sorry boss," said the chicken bot, "It will not happen again…" "It better not, Scratch!" Eggman yelled, "Because if something like this happens again, you are becoming scrap metal!" "But boss…" "But nothing! This is the last time I trust you with an emerald!"

"What's the big deal anyways?" Grounder asked, "We can always try again." Eggman looked at grounder angrily, "You just don't get it, do you?" the doctor asked, annoyed, "The Eggbeater cost 300 million dollars!" "So?" "That is equal to 30 million mobiums!"

Coconuts decided to butt in, "Dr. Eggman sir," he said, "Scratch and Grounder were always incompetent, just fire them and let ME catch Sonic!" Eggman turned to Coconuts and said, "You have blame for this as well, Coconuts! But because you showed more competence than them during this operation, I will not punish you." "But can I catch Sonic?" "NO!"

Eggman then sat in his big comfy chair. "All that preparation, setting Sonic up to think the Eggbeater was a new Death Egg, all that money spent, all that time building it. GONE TO WASTE BECAUSE OF YOU!" he screamed pointing directly at Scratch and Grounder.

Eggman slammed his fists on the armrests of his chair. "It was supposed to be my finest plan yet!" he said, "It was supposed to put Sonic through an emotional breakdown, no matter what choice he made! If he chose to destroy its core, he would suffer slow mental deterioration due to guilt and end up in a mental institution. If he chose to get clobbered, he would end up in a hospital, then a mental institution, getting him out of my way from taking over the world!"

Orbot wheeled in delivering the doctor a soda and a cheeseburger. Eggman took a bite out of his cheeseburger. "Because of your incompetence," said Eggman with food in his mouth and crumbs dropping down his jacket, "You are on floor scrubbing duty for a month!"

"Gee," Coconuts muttered, "The boss is angrier than Julian on a Monday morning…" Eggman turned to Coconuts furiously, "WHAT WAS THAT!?"

Coconuts gave a quick reply without thinking, "I said you were angrier than Julian on a Monday morning." Eggman was furious, "What did I tell you about that name!?" "You…" "I told you to never mention Julian ever again! The man brought shame to my family name!"

Eggman pointed his finger square at Coconuts, "Just for the mention of that name, you are demoted to scrub-monkey-third-class!" Eggman threw Coconuts a mop and bucket, he then pressed a button that opened a trap door beneath the monkey bot.

Knuckles slept comfortably in his seat and snored softly; he felt a nudge from behind and shifted his head a little bit. "Knuckles," a soft voice said, "Knuckles, wake up". Knuckles opened his eyes and looked up to find Jack standing there. "Huh, what is going on?" He said. "We are almost home" Jack replied. Knuckles looked out the window, sure enough, the plane was slowly descending from the dimming sky. "Where are we landing?" Knuckles asked. "DC" Jack replied, "But don't worry, we called your friend to pick you up."

The plane lost more and more altitude and the ground got closer and closer. The plane eventually touched down on the runway and taxied before coming to a stop near one of the terminals. The pilot killed the engines and gave the okay to exit the plane. Knuckles grabbed his bags and stepped off the plane, still a little dazed from his nap.

Outside, he was greeted by a cheerful voice "Hey Knuckles" it said. Knuckles looked in front of him to see a small, orange, twin tailed fox before him. "Hey, Tails. Long time no see!" Said Knuckles excitedly, not having seen his friend for weeks. "I'm glad to see you too Knuckles" replied Tails.

"Excuse me Mr. Prower" Jack kindly interrupted, "Please" Tails replied, "Just call me Tails" "Okay, Tails" Said Jack. "Well anyways, Tails, could I speak to you for a minute". "Okay" the fox replied. Tails turned around "Knuckles," he said "why won't you get seated in the Tornado 1, I'll be right there".

Knuckles walked over to the little biplane. He threw his stuff in the back and climbed in, 'ahhh, can't wait to get back to Angel Island', he thought.

"You want me to do what?" Tails asked. "I need you to take the ice core samples to the NOAA lab in Station Square" Jack replied. "But I need to get Knuckles back to his home on Angel Island, can't you do it?" Tails asked. "I wish I could," said Jack, "But my wife just called, I need to pick Sam up to take him to the airport in the morning, and I never get to spend time with him." "I understand" Replied Tails, "I'm sure we will work something out."

Tails entered the Tornado 1 with Knuckles in the back seat. "So Tails" Knuckles spoke, "when do you think we will be at Angel Island?" Tails started up the engines and replied, "Ummmmm, about that." "What?" Knuckles asked. "You see Knuckles," said the fox "I can't take you to Angel Island; I have to deliver the ice cores to Station Square."

"Well that's a bummer" Knuckles said with a sigh. Tails paused for a minuite, "I can take you as far as Emerald Hill, I messaged Dulcy, and she will take you from there." Tails got the clear for takeoff and the Tornado sped down the runway and up into the sky.

Knuckles and Tails talked about what they did during the time Knuckles was gone during the flight. "So you saved Jack from falling into an icy chasm of death?" Tails asked. "Yep" Knuckles answered. "Looks like you can be a hero when you want to be" Tails teased. "…Shut up…" Knuckles replied in a slightly annoyed, but happy tone. "Emerald Hill is straight ahead!" Tails announced.

Sonic and Sally continued to playfully argue, the subjects were so random they were irrelevant. They heard a buzz from overhead; they looked up to see a small biplane which Sonic recognized right away. "It's Tails!" Sonic pointed out.

The Tornado 1 was descending on Emerald Hill, it was near sunset. Tails looked down at the ground; it had a pinkish hue from the gorgeous red sunset. He looked around, something caught his eye.

"It's Sonic!" he said excitedly. Knuckles looked shocked, in a good way, "Really?" he asked. Knuckles took a look for himself to see the blue hedgehog, "You are right Tails, I might as well say hi while I'm here. Take it down Tails!" "Right" Tails replied.

Sonic picked Sally up and ran after the incoming plane, as expected, Sonic had the lead. The Tornado came down to a low enough altitude that Sonic could talk to Tails, "Hey Tails," he said, "How are ya doing big guy?" "I'm doing fine Sonic," said the fox. Tails looked to his side to see the pair.

"Oh, hi Aunt Sally!" said Tails excitedly. "Hi Tails," is all that Sally could say at the moment. "Look who I've got!" said Tails. Knuckles poked his head out and said "Hey Sonic!" "Knuckles?" Sonic said surprised, "I haven't seen you in so long!"

The plane touched down and came to a complete stop. Sonic stopped and set Sally down on her feet. Sally instinctively ran over to the cockpit and grabbed Tails and gave him a big bear hug "Ohhhh Tails" she said hugging him hard, "You're getting so big!" Sally gave Tails a few kisses on the cheek. "Aunt Sally, that's enough already!" pleaded Tails giggling. Sally put Tails down, too busy to notice Sonic helping Knuckles to unload his luggage.

"That sounds like one mondo-crazy trip, Knux!" Sonic commented. "Yeah," Knuckles replied, "We had to work in subzero conditions, almost fell into an ice fissure of doom, and had to deal with Vector backing up the toilet every week!" "Now, who is taking you to Angel Island," Sonic asked. "Dulcy is" Knuckles answered. Just as he said that, the green dragon came into view.

Dulcy landed like a helicopter, perfectly on her feet. "In case you are wondering, yes, I have been working on my landings" was the first thing to come out of her mouth. Knuckles was a little bit surprised. "And don't worry, I cut out the 'maaa' crap a couple weeks ago …it took my boyfriend dumping me to find out it wasn't funny…"

"Erm… Great story, Dulce" is all Knuckles could say.

"Its getting dark, we better get going," said Dulcy. Knuckles couldn't argue, the sun was beginning to touch down on the horizon over the shining blue waters. Knuckles looked back at Sonic and said, "I wish we had more time, but I want to get home" he climbed onto the dragon's back. Dulcy just gave the announcement of departure and took off into the sky, Sonic, Sally, and Tails waved.

Dulcy and Knuckles were now just a dot in the redding sky at this point. Tails turned to look at Sonic and Sally, "I should get going too, the cores need to get to Station Square on a very tight schedule". Sonic nodded.

"So Sonic," Tails continued, "what are your plans?" "Its getting kind of late" Sonic answered, "so me and Sal are going to set up camp for the night and I am going to take her back to Mobotropolis in the morning."

Tails got into the cockpit and started the engine; he heard a voice call "WAIT!" He turned around to see Sally coming up to him, "You didn't think I could let you leave without my little present, did you?" she said. Tails looked confused. Sally gently grabbed Tails' head and planted a kiss on his nose. Tails giggled, "The funny kiss!" he squealed with joy. "Thanks Aunt Sally… well, bye Sonic, see ya!" he said waving to the hedgehog, "See you later little bro!" Sonic said back before Tails hit the throttle sending the plane off into the sky.

Sonic and Sally were alone in the Emerald Hill Zone, it was sunset and the birds chirped in the red sky seeking their nests somewhere in the landscape bathed with a pinkish hue. Sonic walked over and sat on a cliff overlooking the gleaming waters reflecting the half set sun. Sally sat down next to him. "Beautiful sunset, Sal" Sonic commented on the sunset. "Yeah, it's the best sunset I have seen in a long time" Sally added.

"This sunset reminds me so much of Knothole," Sonic said, "remember when we used to sit down together after a long day and watch the sunset?"

Sally took a moment to remember the sunsets they used to watch together "Yeah," she said "its funny how all that pollution created such beautiful sunsets." Sonic smirked with a laugh, "I wonder what's causing this sunset then." Sally looked at the sky "If I had a guess, I would say ice crystals in the upper troposphere as a result of moisture being pumped up by strong thunderstorms to our west" Sally explained.

"You know Sal, you are so smart, and that is what I like about you" Sonic complemented. "Why thank you Sonic" Sally said with a giggle. "Well, we better set up camp," Sonic stated. Sonic walked over to a bush and pulled out a backpack, "I always put these in the bushes, I just want to make sure that my stuff doesn't get damaged" Sonic explained. He reached into the backpack and pulled out the tent and sleeping bags, "here, help me set up the tent" he said while throwing some of the supplies over to Sally, she caught them in her arms.

It was now dark; the stars twinkled in the sky like glitter. The camp was set up and Sonic and Sally sat next to a fire they built. Sally's stomach growled, "Sonic, what do we have to eat?" she asked. Sonic reached into the backpack "Chili dogs!" he said pulling two chili dogs out of the pack. "Oh I should have known" Sally said as Sonic handed Sally her chili dog.

Sonic and Sally ate their chili dogs and discussed about casual topics like the weather, life, and media. They had seconds, then thirds, then fourths. In a short while, their stomachs were packed full of meat, bread, and relish.

They lay down in the moist grass and rested their heads against a soggy log digesting their meal.

"Sal, do you think Mobius is around one of those stars?" Sonic asked. Sally gave a quick answer, "I don't know," she said "Mobius' coordinates did not survive The Event."

Sonic turned his head to look at Sally, "Do you ever wonder what happened?" he asked. Sally shook her head, "No one knows what The Event exactly was," she explained "it happened 300 years before we were born, and most of its records did not survive. All that is known about The Event is that it was a catastrophe that rendered Mobius uninhabitable so Mobians were forced to evacuate the planet. They gathered up on Angel Island and chaos controlled the island and everyone on it here to Earth."

Sonic and Sally just lay there in the cool moist grass, feeling the cool breeze on their bodies. They occasionally looked at the ocean sparkling with the reflection of the stars above and talked for a minuite, but they mostly just lay there, thinking. What was The Event? What made the ice shelf collapse? What did Mobius look like?

After a few minutes, Sonic let out a big yawn, "Sally, its been a long day, maybe we should go to bed". Sally yawned and nodded her head in agreement, they got up and walked over to the tent and entered it. They zipped the door and got into their sleeping bags. "Good night Sal" said Sonic. "Good night Sonic" Sally replied. Sonic then turned out the lantern and then they got snuggled in their sleeping bags. The tent was slightly illuminated by the soft glow of the dying campfire. The two slowly drifted off to sleep.

Sonic awoke, it was very dark out and a cool wind shook the tent. Sonic turned to his side to see that Sally wasn't there. "Sally?" he asked as the wind started to whistle. He heard a low rumble. "Sally?" he asked again. i_She must have gone out for a walk/i_ Sonic thought. Sonic unzipped the tent entrance and walked out to see a frightening scene.

Low, black, boiling clouds spanned the skies of emerald hill. Lightning streaked through the clouds with rumbles of thunder. Sharp, white, glowing, spears seemed the split the sky and pierce the earth with terrifying crashes of thunder. The cool winds howled, Sonic's quills blew in the wind and the palm trees swayed. Rain came down in torrents.

"Well," said Sonic, "Sally DID say something about thunderstorms to the west. But what would she be doing out in this weather?" Sonic then remembered Emerald Hill was in the tropics, storms in this region travel from east to west, so this storm must have come up suddenly and trapped Sally out in it. He thought about it for a second before searching for Sally again.

"Sally!" Sonic called out into the storm. No answer. "Where could she be?"

Suddenly, Sonic heard Sally scream.

"HOLD ON SAL!" Sonic hollered as he started to run off in search of Sally.

The storm seemed to get worse. The wind blew harder; Lightning eerily illuminated the landscape with flashes and shadows. The rain continued to pour torrentially, wetting the ground.

"SONIC!"

"SALLY, WHERE ARE YOU!?"

Sonic ran as fast as he could under the lightning-streaked sky searching for Sally. Because of the darkness, the lightning flashes were all he had to visually navigate. He followed Sally's screams. As he got closer, he began hearing an evil, menacing, dark laugh. A laugh he swore he heard before.

Sonic tripped and fell into a sticky substance. "Mega muck!" Sonic said fearfully. Mega muck is a mud-like substance, when water is applied to it (rainfall, for example), it becomes a sticky glue-like liquid that is hard to break free from. As Sonic tried to free himself, he saw two glowing red eyes about 20 yards away. There was a flash of lightning, showing the silhouette of the figure who the eyes belonged to.

The figure was a large man, Sonic couldn't make out his identity, but Sonic was sure it was not Eggman.

Another lightning flash. This one revealing a horrifying sight.

Sonic saw Sally, she was trapped inside a tube next to the dark figure, screaming. Sonic quickly realized what the tube was, a roboticizer. "No…!" Sonic cried. He struggled to free himself from the megamuck, he pulled and thrashed until, eventually, he was free. But it was too late.

The figure pulled the switch, laughing menacingly. Sally let out a horrible scream of terror as her flesh started to turn to metal. Sonic tried to run, but the megamuck stuck to his shoes slowed him down to a walking pace. The lightning made the process more horrifying. With every lightning flash, Sonic could see that more of Sally's flesh had been turned to metal. He couldn't bear to think of what happened in between.

The process was almost complete. Sonic began to see images between the flashes, images of violent tornadoes, devastating hurricanes, and massive storms. As the lighting flashed, Sonic alternated between the images of the storms and the roboticization process.

The process was complete, and a fully roboticized Sally walked out of the tube. Sonic heard the figure speak in it's evil tone, "You may have won the battle hedgehog" it said, "But you have lost the war."

Sonic looked up, and saw a low, black, lightning streaked, cloud race for him. He could only gasp as the cloud was about to pass over. The cloud passed over him, there was a large burst of wind, and everything went black and silent.


	3. Brewing Storm

"Sally! Sally!" Sonic screamed in terror. He heard Sally's voice "Sonic! Sonic!" "Sally!" "Sonic, wake up!"

Sonic opened his eyes and saw Sally sitting over him.

The storm, the roboticization, it was all just a nightmare. "Oh, Sally" he sobbed. Sonic wrapped his arms around Sally and buried his face in her arm. He was crying with tears streaming down his face.

"You were roboticized" he said while sobbing, "I couldn't do anything to save you." "Its okay Sonic" said Sally in her soft motherly tone, "you were just having a bad dream. I'm here." "Oh Sal" said Sonic as he continued to cry in Sally's arms.

"Tell me what happened," said Sally, "you will feel better." "I was in the middle of a horrible storm…" Sonic started with a sob, "You were crying out in terror, I was trying to find you!" The hedgehog sniffed. "Go on," Sally said. "I eventually found you; you were in a roboticizer… There was a large man, couldn't tell who he was… I was too late, you got roboticized, and I couldn't do anything to save you!" Sonic couldn't bear the emotion. He took a breath before continuing. "I saw images of horrible storms, hurricanes, tornadoes…"

Sonic couldn't continue. He just cried in Sally's lap.

Sonic lay in Sally's lap as she gently stroked the hedgehog's blue quills. Sally comforted Sonic until the morning light began to shine on the camp illuminating the tent in its soft, comforting, glow.

_ Over the past week, an unusual negatively inverted trough had been stalled over the mid Atlantic. It dipped farther south than most troughs. A trough is a dip in the jet stream; they bring in cold high altitude air over warm surface air destabilizing the atmosphere in that region. When the atmosphere is unstable, storms develop, and this was no exception. The unstable atmosphere had sparked the development of thunderstorms over the tropical mid Atlantic._

_Troughs are often associated with upper level low pressure circulations and can provoke the development of surface lows. Again, this was no exception. Meteorologists have been monitoring this trough for the development of a surface circulation, this is especially important over tropical oceans because it could become the seed for a tropical cyclone._

_The jet stream then split and moved north cutting off the low. The cut off low was now on its own. This area was being monitored more closely now since it was cut off from the jet stream, which greatly reduced wind shear making tropical development more likely. The thunderstorms it was producing were very well capable of mixing it_

_down, literally forcing the low to the surface. The National Hurricane Center declared the low an invest, an area that they are watching closely._

Jack drove his car through the DC suburbs under the gloomy sky. He was on his way to pick up Sam to take him to the airport. It was raining moderately and the ground was damp from the rainfall. Jack pulled up at his house to find Sam getting his luggage into a taxi; Jack honked his horn to get his son's attention. Sam looked at him with a pose that said "oh great…" Jack pulled up to the curb and put the car in park and exited the vehicle.

"Dad, its fine, the cab is here…" said Sam, clearly annoyed. "I promised your mother I would take you to the airport and I am keeping that promise" said Jack. Sam sighed. Jack walked over to the cab and spoke to the driver, "Sorry for the trouble sir," he said, "Sam probably thought I was late again!" "No hard feelings" the driver responded, "Here is the kid's money back." The driver gave Jack a $20. "Thank you," said jack. "Any time" replied the driver.

The taxi departed and drove down the road around a corner.

Sam got his luggage into the car and sat in the passenger seat. Jack got into the driver's seat. Sam just looked away from him. "Sam… Sam… Want to talk about something?" Jack asked as he started up the car and began to drive down the road. Sam didn't respond. They stayed silent for most of the ride.

Jack then remembered something he wanted to talk to Sam about. "Sam," he said, "I saw that you got an F in calculus." "Dad…" "You are a straight A student, you don't fail classes!" "Dad," said Sam, "why are you so angry about this? I got straight As most of the semester and I am on the Scholastic team!" Jack took a moment before speaking, "Now look, I'm not angry, just disappointed. It is just that I have never thought you could fail."

"Would you like to hear my side of it?" Sam asked. "Sam, how could there be two sides?" "Just listen a moment" said Sam, "I got the test done, correct answers, all handed in. The only reason he failed me is because I didn't write out the solutions!" "Why didn't you?" "I did them in my head. He said if he can't do it in his head, then I must be cheating!" "That's ridiculous, how could he fail you for being smarter than he is?"

By now they were at the airport. "Look Sam," said Jack "Sorry I overreacted. I am going to have a word with this guy; we are going to get everything straightened out. Okay?" "Okay" replied Sam before he grabbed his bags and exited the car. Jack watched Sam go into the terminal entrance, _he didn't even say goodbye_, he thought to himself.

Jack drove to work under the gloomy skies. It still rained steadily. Jack pulled up at the NOAA headquarters and entered the building. He signed in and headed for the laboratory to sort ice core samples gathered from earlier expeditions. His boss, Tom, saw him and began following him down the hallway.

"Jack!" yelled Tom, "I know you have a habit for rubbing people the wrong way, but why? Why would you aggravate the Vice President?"

Jack remembered when he got back from his previous expedition with Frank and Jason. He had revealed his findings to the UN Global Warming conference in New Delhi. The vice president hadn't listened to Jack, so Jack had purposely angered him.

Jack turned around and looked at Tom in the eye, "Because my seventeen year-old son knows more science than he does!" "Perhaps, but your seventeen year-old kid does not control our budget!" Jack just walked out on Tom. "Jack!" Tom yelled for him. But by now Jack was out of Tom's sight. "This guy is hard to work with" Tom said to himself.

Jack sat in the chair in his office. He took a sip of coffee while looking at the computer screen. He browsed through and studied the various weather charts and images that were available. He noticed on the visible satellite what appeared to be a strong cluster of thunderstorms over the mid tropical Atlantic. He switched to IR, and sure enough, there were bright colors indicating storm tops were very high. He picked up the phone and dialed the National Hurricane Center.

The phone rang a few times before someone answered. "Hello. This is the National Hurricane Center, how may I help you?" "This is Jack Hall" "Yes, Jack, what do you want?" "There seems to be some pretty strong convection over the mid Atlantic…" "Yes, we know. We have marked it as an invest area, it has a 60% chance of developing into a tropical cyclone in the next 48 hours." "Do you know its track?" "No, but so far it looks like it should stay out to sea, it could probably affect South Island by this weekend." "Thank you" "No problem, Jack." Jack hung up the phone.

Jack looked at the thick patch of colorful blobs on the computer screen. iIt's in Knuckles' route to Angel Island/i

_ The low was being forced to the surface and buoys were beginning to report a circulation. The thunderstorms continued to build and gradually move toward the center. The low now had an upper level and surface circulation, but was still cold core. But as the storms moved toward the center, the latent heat energy they released began to warm the core. Compression at the upper levels began to blow the upper level low away and replace it with an upper level area of high pressure._

_The circulation was still disorganized, but nonetheless, hurricane hunters were dispatched to the system to see if it had become a tropical depression. Because of the improvement of the system, the chance of development was upgraded to 90 %._

Knuckles was asleep on Dulcy's back, he slept until he heard the dragon scream, "RISE AND SHINE KNUXY!" Knuckles jumped, "Oh my god Dulcy, do NOT do that!" he said angry and annoyed. "Sorry Knuckles" the dragon apologized. Knuckles, now wide awake, looked around to see what was happening.

To the east, the sun was just above the horizon over the open waters flooding Knuckles' view area with morning light. Ahead of them, there was a mass of large, towering, white clouds.

"Dulcy" said Knuckles as he nudged the dragon's ear, "look ahead of you!" Dulcy looked straight forward to see the cloud bank. The clouds appeared to be getting closer, when in reality; it was them who were getting closer to the clouds. They began to make out the individual features of the clouds, the puffy towers, the spreading anvils, and the overshooting tops. "Oh boy," Ducly said, "that looks just nasty!"

Knuckles looked at Dulcy, "can't you land anywhere?" he asked nervously. "I'm sorry, I can't" Ducly replied, "There is no land anywhere in sight. The storms cover too wide of an area so I can't fly around them, and the cloud tops are too high, if I tried to fly over we would both suffocate from the lack of oxygen!" "You mean…?" "Yes, we are going to fly straight THROUGH it!"

They were now just outside the thunderstorm cluster. The clouds were rapidly boiling up into the sky and were active with lightning. "Those updrafts are intense!" said Knuckles, seeing how fast the clouds were ascending. Thunder started out as low grumbles and gradually evolved into loud cracks as they moved closer to the turbulent, electrically active cloud. Knuckles began to shiver in fear.

"What is it Knuckles? Chicken?" Dulcy mocked. "No! " Knuckles replied, "It's just that we are a thousand feet over the ocean and flying into a storm complex!" Dulcy sighed, "Let me put it this way," she said "I've been flying all night and I am tired. We can both go through the storm and make it to Angel Island, or I fall asleep going around it, and we plunge into the ocean and die."

Knuckles just stayed silent. "I thought so" said Dulcy. A bright blue flash lit up Knuckles' face followed by a loud crack of thunder. "Hold on Knuckles, I am going to crack the whip!" Dulcy warned.

'Cracking the whip' is a maneuver where Dulcy straightens her body to become more aerodynamic and diverts all her energy to forward thrust to get a short 100 MPH speed boost.

The dragon began to count down "5…" Knuckles gripped on to the saddle "…4…3…" lightning flashed and thunder roared "…2…" Knuckles closed his eyes "…1…"

Dulcy's body instantly straightened. Her tail aligned with the rest of her body in a split second creating the cracking noise that gives the maneuver its name. Dulcy gained 100 MPH of speed in a jiffy and darted for the violent cumulonimbus clouds.

The dragon and her passenger disappeared into the rumbling mountain of cloud and light.

Knuckles held on for dear life as they speed through the storm at 170+ MPH. Lightning streaked around them, it was as if they were inside a crackling campfire. The lightning took on many forms, from a flash, to a bolt, to a sheet of electric energy. The lightning was so constant that individual thunder bangs and rumbles were muffled by the previous. Knuckles felt a stinging sensation as the wind, rain, and hail pelted his face, it was like being in the middle of a dust storm.

In the middle of the chaos, they heard a buzz. The buzz got louder and closer. Suddenly, a large plane bearing the NOAA logo flew past barley missing them. "What was that!?" Dulcy asked loudly so Knuckles could hear her in violence of the storm. "Hurricane Hunters!" Knuckles answered, "This must be an invest area!"

The hurricane hunters flew through the dark turbulent sky. Their mission was to scan the invest for a closed circulation, if one was detected, it would be upgraded to a tropical depression.

The team was lead by Captain Drew. Drew is a grey mobian fox and the only mobian member of the team.

Drew commanded his team from the helm of the aircraft. He gripped the steering yolk tightly and managed to stay focused, even within the severe turbulence.

He suddenly heard the navigator through his headset, "Sir, there is an object of some sort on the radar coming straight at us!"

Drew began to see a shape emerge from the darkness. Lightning flashed revealing it to be a green dragon and a red mobian echidna.

"HOLD ON BOYS!" he called over the intercom, "we are going to take a sharp climb!" The men responded, they all gripped on to the nearest object they could find. Drew yanked hard on the yolk, the plane took a sharp climb that caused the crew to be thrown around in their seats, if they had not been buckled in, they would have been thrown around the cabin like toys.

They barley missed the dragon and her passenger.

The crew had their minds on the two individuals that got caught in this storm. But then Drew ordered, "Don't worry about them, lets get the job done and hope they get out of this okay!" The team followed.

"Sir" said the copilot, "we are detecting a wind shift, it seems to be following a counterclockwise pattern."

Drew was happy to hear the news, he smiled, "That means there is a circulation here" he said, "Now lets go find the center so we can confirm this thing a depression!"

Eventually, the plane made it to the center of the circulation. "Release sonde now!" Drew ordered. The radio sonde, a capsule containing important instruments, was dropped from the plane and descended into the violent darkness, sending back data of its surroundings.

The data that streamed in was displayed on the hurricane hunter's monitors. They showed pressure readings of 1005 millibars, 30 MPH horizontal winds, and rising dew point and humidity.

But the real prize was the rise in temperature they saw, the center was warmer than the rest of the storm, the telltale sign of a warm core system. It may have not looked like much from satellite, but the storm now had all the characteristics of a tropical cyclone.

"Send the data to the National Hurricane Center" ordered Drew. The radio operator followed his orders.

Dulcy and Knuckles continued to penetrate the storm.

The turbulence was bad. It felt like going down a rundown road in a Formula One racecar at top speed with potholes every second. Knuckles nearly thought he would lose consciousness in this kind of turbulence.

Suddenly, they shot up vertically. "What is going on?" Knuckles screamed as they flew upwards at least 70 MPH. "I think we hit an updraft!" Dulcy replied in fear and excitement. Just a second later, they hit a downdraft causing them to plummet, then hitting an updraft again shooting them back up. "I want my Mommy!" Knuckles hollered in fear.

The ride lasted for 20 terrifying minutes, but to them, it seemed like eternity. These drafts were like nothing Knuckles has ever seen, these were unusually powerful thunderstorms.

The two finally emerged out of the violent clouds shaken, but okay. They looked back at the flashing, puffy, heap of clouds that continued to boil higher and higher into the atmosphere. Dulcy and Knuckles felt sick, and vomited into the sea.

After a few minutes, Dulcy laughed "I want my Mommy?" Dulcy mocked with a laugh, "You really are a wuss!" "I am NOT a wuss!" Knuckles replied, "We just went through a storm!" "Alright, alright…" said Dulcy, "Because of this situation, I would excuse 'oh God, help me', 'I'm too young to die', or even screaming like a little girl. But 'I want my Mommy?' Get out!" Dulcy laughed.

Angel Island was now in sight, Dulcy and Knuckles stayed silent for the rest of the ride there.

"Jack!" Jack turned around in his chair to see his co-worker Jason running in. "Yes, what is it?" Jack asked. Jason took a breath and answered "The hurricane hunters in the invest saw Knuckles and Dulcy, they got caught in the storm!" "Oh my god!" Jack said in fear for his friend's safety. "But not to worry," Jason reassured "I'm sure he is alright." "Okay," said Jack, "did the hurricane hunters report anything on the invest?" "Yes," Jason answered, "They found a closed circulation. The National Hurricane Center upgraded it to Tropical Depression 13."

"One more thing Jack" said Jason. Jack turned around, "What?" "Remember the presentation you gave in Delhi on abrupt climate shift?" "Yes." "Well, they want you to give the same presentation publicly here in DC." "What time?" "Tomorrow at 12:00 noon."

Jack thought about it for a minute, "Sounds good" he said. Jason left the room and Jack went back to work.

Sonic sat in front of the embers of the fire. He was now over his nightmare and he was preparing breakfast. He put a few pieces of wood on the embers and the flame returned. Sally crawled out of the tent entrance and stood up. "What's for breakfast?" she asked, "Let me guess, more chili dogs?" "Nope!" Sonic replied, "I was thinking something more fresh." "Like what?" asked Sally.

Sonic showed Sally a dead fish, "This took me hours to catch!" "May I see that?" Sally asked. "Sure Sal!" Sonic handed Sally the fish. Sally took a good whiff of the fish. _Freeze Packed,_ she thought, _Just another one of Sonic's attempts to impress me._

Sally then looked at Sonic with a smile, "Why I am impressed," she lied, "I think someone deserves a kiss!" Sonic got excited immediately. After all the years they've known each other, Sally was finally going to give him a kiss! Sally looked at Sonic seductively, "Close your eyes and you will get a big surprise!" Sonic followed these instructions.

Sonic closed his eyes and made a "kissy face" with his lips. He aimed for Sally's lips. Sally backed away and held the fish up in between her and Sonic. Sonic's lips planted firmly on the fish's and he kissed the fish for 10 whole seconds. "Open your eyes now" Sally said. Sonic opened his eyes to find himself kissing a fish. Sonic's eyes widened as he jumped back at started spitting and wiping off his tongue.

"You really thought you could fool me with a freeze-packed fish?" said Sally laughing, "You should have seen the look on your face, hedgehog! It was all like 'Oh Sally, I love you… OH MY GOD A FISH!'" Sally just was laughing away. "That wasn't funny!" Sonic said, irritated. "Well that's what you get for a pathetic attempt to impress me!" "Well whatever," Sonic said, "Lets just eat breakfast and go." Sally nodded her head in agreement, still laughing.

Sonic cut meat off the fish with a knife from his backpack and put the strips on a rock over the fire. Sonic cooked the meal as Sally took down the tent. "Come and get it, Sal!" Sonic announced. Sally walked over and sat down across from Sonic and had her share of fish. They discussed the routes for their trip to New Mobotropolis over the course of the meal.

After they were done, Sonic continued packing up. He caught Sally cutting up the rest of the fish and putting it in a plastic bag. "What are you doing Sally?" Sonic asked. "Cutting the remaining scraps off this fish for later" Sally replied.

"Why?" Sonic asked, "there is hardly anything left on there."

"Sonic," Sally started; Sonic rolled his eyes and prepared for another one of Sally's environmental lectures. Sally continued, "Nature gave us this fish. Do you think I am going to waste it? When you hunt, fish, or take something from the ecosystem, you better use as much of it as possible!" she said strongly.

"I didn't fish it, I bought it from some guys by a pier" Sonic said. "Well they fished it, didn't they?" Sally stated. "I guess so…" said Sonic. "Yeah," said Sally, "it all comes down to nature, and my number one rule concerning nature is 'you take it, you use it!'"

Sally is an environmentalist, she cares for the environment and loves nature. During the war, her top priority besides protecting her friends was to protect the ecosystem against the industrial terrors of Julian Robotnik.

As Sally packaged the fish meat, Sonic packed up the tent and poured water on the fire. Sonic got everything all packed up in his backpack.

"Let's go, Sal. New Mobotropolis awaits!" said Sonic. Sally climbed onto Sonic's back. "Ready?" Sonic asked. "Ready." Sally answered. "Alright, lets juice!" announced Sonic as he took off with a burst of speed leaving the campsite behind. Within a minute, they were out of sight.

Dulcy touched down on the edge of Angel Island. Knuckles climbed off her back and grabbed his luggage from her pouch. They stood on the edge of the island gazing off into the distance, looking at the storm they just went through as it retreated over the horizon. Unknown to them, the storm was now Tropical Depression 13.

"Thanks for the ride Dulce" said Knuckles. "No problem Knuxy" Dulcy replied.

"So, Knuckles" said Dulcy, "Who watched the Master Emerald while you were gone?" "I got Julie Su to do it" Knuckles answered. "That's good Knux" said Dulcy, "I bet you are glad to be home!" "You bet I am!" said Knuckles, "especially after the ice collapse, I've had enough excitement." "Well, it looks like I should leave now," Dulcy said. "Well, once again, thanks for the ride" Knuckles said. "Once again, no problem" said Dulcy. Dulcy spread her wings and flew into the sky.

Knuckles waved. After Dulcy was far away, Knuckles turned around and entered the jungle. He had no trouble navigating its dense growth, since he lived there most his life. He found his way to the Master Emerald altar. He saw Julie Su, at her post like she should be.

He walked up behind her and said in a way not to scare her "Julie, you are now off duty!" Julie turned around to see Knuckles with a smile on his face. "Knuckles," said Julie, "You're back!" she wrapped her arms around him squeezing him tight. "Too hard" Knuckles said with a gag. "Oh, Sorry" said Julie, releasing her grip.

Julie Su was like a sister to Knuckles. She is very competent and is willing to do anything. She is not a good person to frighten, for she reacts and takes action quickly.

She is a brave fighter and co-guardian of the emerald. She later explained to Knuckles how she stayed within 20 feet of the emerald the entire time, and how Rouge attempted to steal it and Julie scared her off with her handgun.

"So, how was Antarctica?" she asked. "Fine" Knuckles answered, "I saved my friend/boss from an ice fissure of death… I've told that story so many times by now I'm getting sick of it."

"Yeah, that must get old after a while" Julie said, "Oh yeah, and there is something I think you would be interested in seeing."

"What is it?" Knuckles asked.

Julie showed Knuckles a small television set. "Ermm, cool… but what are you doing with a TV?" "Well, I do need to connect with the outside world. Don't I?" Julie asked. "True," said Knuckles, "But we are on Angel Island, where is it getting its power and signals from?"

"The Master Emerald is a conductor of infinite energy, and that includes electricity and television signals," Julie answered, "But this is not what I wanted to show you"

She turned on the TV. "THIS is what I wanted to show you!" Knuckles looked at what he saw on the screen, he was shocked.

It was The Weather Channel. Footage of violently swaying palm trees, roofs blowing off of houses, whipping winds, rain, and debris filled the screen. The footage had a reporter's voice playing over it. "…the fury of Hurricane Noelani stunned weather experts yesterday, slamming into the unprepared Hawaiian island chain with a cataclysmic force never before witnessed. This is a storm sure to leave despair and destruction in its wake. With 202 MPH winds and a pressure reading of 900 millibars, scientists are already calling this the strongest central Pacific hurricane on record…"

Knuckles stared at the destruction unfolding on screen in awe.

The reporter wrapped up on Hurricane Noelani and the screen switched to a satellite image of a thunderstorm cluster that seemed to rotate around a common center. "…Closer to home," the reporter continued "Tropical Depression 13 has developed in the mid Atlantic and is expected to rapidly intensify. Meteorologists are unsure of its track, but there is the unsettling chance that this system could affect South Island…"

Knuckles turned off the TV. "That is something alright" he said. "Oh, you haven't seen the half of it!" Julie said. "What?" Knuckles asked. "The week you left, Super Typhoon Max hit Japan. Damage in the multi trillions of dollars range. Death toll is expected to reach the tens of thousands!"

"Anything else interesting happened while I was gone?" Knuckles asked. "Not really," Julie said, "Everything else was conflict in the Middle East this, and politics that. The only interesting thing going on is the weather." Knuckles nodded in agreement.

_Meteorologists from all over the eastern seaboard watched as Tropical Depression 13 became better organized. Within a couple of hours, thunderstorms had wrapped around the center. The thunderstorms boiled higher and higher into the atmosphere as they became stronger. Hurricane hunters reported a drop in pressure by about 4 MB._

_ A tropical cyclone, or a hurricane as they are called in the Atlantic, are driven by convection. Strong thunderstorms near the center suck air off of the surface of the planet, lowering the pressure. Air rushes in to replace the air lost, the process of air moving from an area of higher pressure to fill in lower pressure is known as wind, a hurricane's wind speed increases as the pressure decreases. The same with any other storm._

_ Tropical Depression 13's pressure was now 1001 MB, and dropping rapidly. Meteorologists were now confident that they were dealing with a tropical storm, but only the next advisory would tell._

Tails flew the Tornado into the airspace of Station Square, Florida. It was around noon. Tails started the dive for the airport. The sea breeze thunderstorms were starting to roll in as the ocean and land, heated by the sun, began to give off their moisture. The storms formed near the coast and rolled in riding the sea breeze, in a few hours, the breeze will change pushing the storms back out to sea.

Tails avoided the individual cells, not because he was afraid, but because he wanted to make sure the ice cores were safe. Tails contacted the control tower to let them know of his arrival. He got the clear for landing and circled the airport and lost altitude before finally coming in to the runway. He taxied the little biplane to the 'small planes' section just past the commercial terminals. He brought the plane into the hangar and killed the engine.

He exited the plane where he was greeted by a G.U.N. agent. "Miles Tails Prower?" asked the agent. "Yes" Tails answered. "Are the ice cores in good condition?" the agent asked. "Check for yourself" Tails suggested.

The agent opened the cargo hatch and took out the container with the ice cores in it; he opened the lid and looked inside. "They seem alright" the agent said as he closed the lid, "Well, Mr. Prower" the agent continued, "Enjoy your stay at Station Square."

The agent politely walked away as the ice cores were loaded onto a G.U.N. truck.

"Why would G.U.N. pick up the ice cores?" asked Tails as he watched the truck drive away. Tails was suspicious when G.U.N. was involved, and he had a right to be, G.U.N is a very secretive organization. Was there something that Jack hadn't told him?

"So where am I going to stay?" Tails asked himself. "You ARE staying with me!" a voice said from behind. Tails turned around, it was Amy. "Hey Amy" Tails greeted "long time no see! And what are you doing here…?" "I LIVE here!" "I know that, but what are you doing HERE, at the airport?" "We saw your plane coming in…" "We?" "Me, Cream, and Big."

The sky began to darken as one of the thunderstorms began pass over. There was a loud clap of thunder and the rain began to come down heavily. Amy walked Tails out of the hangar and to her car. Tails got into the passenger seat. "Hi Tails!" two voices sounded from the back seat. He turned around to see a small cream colored rabbit and a large purple feline. "Oh, Cream and Big" Tails said with a smile, "I haven't seen you in ever!"

Amy got into the driver's seat and started up the car. "Are you old enough to drive?" Tails asked. "You fly a plane, and you are only 8!" Amy stated. "Point taken" Tails said. Amy turned on the windshield wipers and began to drive. Cream and Big played in the back seat. Amy turned on the radio. She tuned it until a signal came through.

They listened to the radio as they drove through the glass and metal canyons of Station Square.

"This is Station Square Radio Broadcasting!" said a radio announcer. "That's right Bill! The greatest hits in all of Florida! But first, let's get the latest on the weather!" The radio switched over to their meteorologist. "Scattered thunderstorms are expected until 6:00 this evening. It should be a nice night, clear with a low of 69. Tomorrow should be a nice day, sunny, a high of 85. On Friday, the cold front tracking across the south will begin to bring thunderstorms to our area. It's a slow moving front, so expect strong thunderstorms for a few good days!" "Hang on, what about the threat for severe weather?" asked a reporter. "No severe weather expected from now through this weekend. But early next week there is a chance, we are keeping our eyes on it!" "Thanks Bob! Now it's time for some tunes!"

The radio started playing modern pop music. "AUUUGHHHH!" everyone screamed. "Turn it off! Turn it off!" Tails begged, "I'm trying!" Amy replied, "The knob is stuck!" "Mr. Tails, the radio is dying!" said Cream. "Let me handle this" Big said. He wielded his fishing pole and wrapped the line around the knob, giving it a good tug. The knob turned, deactivating the radio.

They pulled into the parking lot of Amy's condo complex. The storm cell had passed over and the sky was now clear. Tails opened the door and stepped out, he tripped on his shoelace and fell face first into a mud puddle. "Tails!" said Amy, she ran over and held the fox's head up, "are you okay?" "Yeah, I'm fine." said Tails as he stood up. Tails' fur was dripping wet and was soaked with mud.

"Cream, get Tails a towel, they are in the trunk" Amy commanded. Cream obeyed. She opened the trunk and began to rummage through the towels. She then picked one and handed it to Tails. The fox looked at the towel; it had a design of little red plane flying through a blue sky. "I made this towel a month ago" said Cream, "It is the Tornado. You can have it, and I mean you can actually have it."

Tails wrapped the towel around his soaked body, "Thank you" he said. Tails did not know why, but he felt touched by Cream's gift to him.

"Come on Tails," said Amy, "You can take a shower once we get to the apartment." Amy locked the car. Her, Big, Tails, and Cream disappeared into the main entrance of the luxury complex.

_It was 12:30 PM EST. The National Hurricane Center was collecting data to put together their next advisory on Tropical Depression 13. The data streaming in was surprising. The pressure dropped down to 998 MB and the winds picked up to 43 MPH. On the satellite, the clouds were beginning to take on a swirling pattern. This was unbelievable. The system had gone from a tropical depression to a moderate tropical storm in a matter of hours. _

_When the new advisory was released, people monitoring the storm found that it was given a name. It was no longer Tropical Depression 13, it was now Tropical Storm Mario._


	4. Enjoy Your Stay

Tails, Amy, Cream, and Big walked into the main hall of the apartment complex. Tails' fur was dripping with brown water and dark with grains of dirt between the hairs.

The boy behind the main desk saw Tails. "Sir" said the boy, "Please take your shoes off."

"Why?" Tails asked. He looked down at his shoes and saw that they were covered in mud. "Oh, right" he said. The boy looked back at Tails, "We just don't want to stain the carpets."

Tails understood. He slipped his shoes off and wrapped them up in the towel so they would drip on the floor.

"Don't worry Tails" said Cream, "You can shower once we get to the apartment." Tails looked at Cream with a soft smile "Thank you" he said. "I was going to take a shower first, but it looks like you need it more than me."

_Why is Cream being so generous?_ Tails thought to himself, _then again, she is always generous._

"This way" said Amy. Tails followed Amy and the gang down the hallway. He could feel the soft carpet on his bare feet, it felt soft and probably very expensive. Tails could see why the boy behind the counter didn't want it stained.

They eventually reached an elevator. Amy pressed the call button, eventually, the doors opened. They stepped inside and Amy pushed the button for the top floor. The doors shut and they ascended up the building.

Once they stepped out on the top floor, Tails was impressed. These were not ordinary apartments, they were penthouses.

Amy walked up to one of the doors and swiped her key. There was a beep and the light turned green, a clicking sound followed as the door unlocked.

The gang stepped into the apartment, Tails was now very impressed.

There was a large living area, complete with a dining table and a kitchen. The kitchen floors were ceramic tile, the dining and recreation areas had beautiful maple floors. Large sliding windows, leading out to a balcony, flooded the whole area with natural light.

In the back, there was a carpeted hall, he took a peek and saw there were three bedrooms. He could easily tell which one was Amy's, since it had a big heart with Sonic's picture on the door.

Tails could already tell Amy must be doing very well for herself.

"Tails," said Amy, "You like the tour so far?" "Yes," Tails replied, "but where am I staying?" "Here, I will show you" said Amy.

Amy took Tails across the living area to a separate carpeted hall. She opened a door and showed Tails into the guest room. It had a twin bed, carpet, dressers, a television, and its own bathroom.

"Now," started Amy, "You pull the faucet out to get the water flowing, and turn it to the left for warm water. There is a bar of soap and shampoo already in there," she instructed.

Amy politely shut the guest room door. Tails walked to the bathroom and opened the door. It was a large bathroom with tiling on the floors and walls. There was a toilet and sink like one would expect to see. There was also a whirlpool tub in the corner and a shower to the side.

Of course, Tails was too dirty for a bath, so he went for the shower instead. Tails opened the curtains and shut them behind him, he remembered Amy's instructions.

He pulled out the knob. Water began to flow from the showerhead. Tails jumped as the cold water hit him. He turned the knob to the left until it was at a comfortable temperature.

Tails grabbed the shampoo and soap and began to wash himself. The dirt washed off of his body creating a black pool on the shower floor.

Tails felt like he hadn't taken a shower in years. He was sure to make this a long shower.

High above the surface of the earth, a large half-spherical space station orbited the planet.

The space station is named the Space Colony ARK. It is an old abandoned research station. It was once full of scientists and blossoming with life, but now, it only has one resident.

A black hedgehog walked down a hallway and his footsteps echoed throughout the vast corridors.

The hedgehog was no other than Shadow the Hedgehog, the ultimate life form.

Shadow wandered through the empty corridors. He came across the spot where that tragic incident occurred many years ago. "Maria…" Shadow said softly.

Shadow lives on the ARK, keeping his promise to the late Maria Robotnik to watch over and protect the people of the planet.

Shadow went insane a couple years back, and almost destroyed an entire nation with the ARK's eclipse canon. His conscience eventually took over and he saved the planet, and came very close to losing his own life in the process.

Ever since then, Shadow has been living on the space station. He legally took the rights for the station from GUN in return for saving the planet.

Shadow looked out the vast window in his living area. Outside, he saw massive clusters of thunderstorms over the United States.

"I wish you could see this storm system Maria," he said sadly, "It's enormous, enormous like the hole that your fate has left in me."

He continued to gaze at the storm system. It looked like the atmosphere itself was boiling.

_Twin cities, Minnesota._

_ Low grey clouds spanned the metropolitan area and lightning streaked the city skies. Although it was just past noon, the thick clouds darkened the cityscape and made it seem more like evening. The whole city was bathed in a bluish hue, lights glittered the city, and lightning highlighted the tall buildings._

_ A sharp cold front that came through the previous day brought severe storms and a massive squall line. But for reasons unknown, powerful storms continued to erupt behind the front well into the cold air mass. A tornado watch had actually been issued for the area._

_ It rained heavily, washing away soil and creating rivers on the roads. Lightning struck the tall buildings, trees, and utility poles all over the metropolitan area_

_Strong winds whipped through the cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul. The canyons of downtown enhanced the wind just like a wind tunnel. Awnings were ripped off of shop fronts and flew down the street. Newsstands and waste bins blew over, spilling their contents on the streets. Tables in front of restaurants tipped over. People struggled with their umbrellas until they eventually lost their grip and watched their umbrellas shoot through the streets._

_Winds whipped around the corners producing small vortices that were strong enough to toss chairs and trash bins 10 feet. Windows blew out and glass fell down on the city like sharp flakes of snow. _

_In the suburbs, tree branches blew down, shingles flew off of roofs, and dumpsters tipped over. _

_A chunk of ice the size of a golf ball fell from the sky and landed on a windshield. Then another chunk, then more, then hail descended on the city in torrents. _

_Hail smashed through windshields, dented cars, and people ran for cover._

_Local meteorologists looked at the supercell striking the twin cities on their radars. They were shocked at what they saw. The supercell was forming a hook echo, the telltale sign of an imminent tornado. _

_The meteorologists contacted the authorities. Before long, civil defense sirens sounded across the city, starting in a high wail and turning to a low drone noise. _

_A dark, spinning, funnel descended from the cloud. A swirl of dust and debris formed under the funnel confirming it as a tornado._

_The tornado tore through the suburbs, roofs were torn away from houses, trees were uprooted, cars were thrown across the street. The swirling cloud of dust and debris at the base of the funnel grew darker and thicker._

_The black funnel of destruction continued to rip it's way through the suburbs, leaving mutilated houses and buildings in it's wake. _

_The tornado had the downtown area in it's sights. As it approached the urban jungle, cars were tossed off of freeways and overpasses. _

_A semi full of gasoline was lifted up and dropped onto a nearby masonry church, exploding in a ball of smoke and fire. The church continued to burn until the tornado passed over, smashing the weakened structure to smithereens. _

_The glass on the skyscrapers began to shatter as the tornado got closer. Windows turned to confetti and swirled into the black vortex._

_The tornado tore its way through downtown, skinning skyscrapers, throwing cars, and demolishing older buildings. _

_The tornado came up on the Viking's stadium. The roof was torn into shreds of fabric and seats were ripped out of the concrete they were bolted to._

_It remerged back into the suburbs and continued its rampage. And eventually dissipating near the edge of town._

Tails continued to wash himself. As he was in the shower, he pondered.

Why didn't the ice cores go to the NOAA lab in DC?

Even more suspiciously, why was a G.U.N. agent sent to pick it up?

Tails was now sure there is something that Jack knows the he doesn't. Tails was also pretty sure Knuckles also knew the secret.

Tails turned the water off and wrapped himself with a bath towel. He dried himself until every hair of fur was free of water.

He walked into the living area. Cream was playing with her pet chao, Cheese. Big was watching the news while Amy was cooking.

A reporter's voice emitted from the TV "…We will continue to bring you the latest on the aftermath of Hurricane Noelani throughout the evening…"

"Making lunch, huh Amy?" Tails asked. "No, Silly" said Amy, "This is dinner!"

"Wha? Dinner?" Tails asked in confusion. Amy pointed at the clock; it read 4:30 PM. "You were in that shower for hours!" Amy stated.

"Well, I felt dirty" said Tails. "Well why wont you go sit down and watch TV with Big and Cream while I get dinner ready" Amy suggested.

Tails sat down on the couch next to Big. On the screen, a young male reporter told the latest on what happened throughout the world that day.

Cream looked at Tails sadly, "Mr. Tails…" she started, "The man on the TV said there was a horrible storm in Hawaii. Will they be alright?"

Tails knew very well what a category 5 hurricane can do. Hawaii will be recovering for months.

Tails saw the sadness in the faces of Cream and Cheese. Tails knew Cream was too young to understand some things in the world.

"Yes," said Tails trying to make Cream feel better, "I am sure they will."

Tails looked at the screen.

"Its just in, severe storms spawned tornadoes across Minnesota and western Wisconsin today. The biggest tornado, rated an EF-3, tearing right through the heart of the twin cities, luckily, no fatalities were reported. In other news…"

The room began to darken as another sea-breeze thunderstorm began to come over.

Tails heard a knock on the door.

"Oh that's right" said Amy, "I invited Chris over for diner."

"Chris Thorndyke?" Tails asked. "The one and only," said Amy. Tails shuddered, "Chris? I CANT believe you invited HIM over!"

"Oh be nice," said Amy, "The kid and his grandpa were kind enough to take us in while New Mobotropolis was under construction."

Tails absolutely hated Christopher Thorndyke. He, Sonic, Sally, and Amy lived with him after Julian Robotnik's death while their new home of New Mobotropolis was being constructed.

Tails found him annoying. Chris was always getting in the way, always wanted attention, and was so clingy.

Thunder growled as Amy went to open the door. She opened the door revealing Christopher Thorndyke. A flash of lightning eerily lit up Chris followed by a crack of thunder.

Tails backed away. "Tails, say hello" said Amy sternly.

Tails looked at Chris shaking with a nervous smile, "h-hello…"

"HELLO!" said Chris, "How is my favorite two tailed fox doing?"

Tails was about to say something, but then Amy shook her head at him. So he just said hello back.

Tails sat on the couch. Chris sat next to him. Tails scooched over. Chris just scooched toward him. "Hey Tails! Want to see my Bakugauhn cards?"

Tails was annoyed already. Chris waved a hand of Bakugauhn trading cards in his face. Tails was urged to knock them right out of his hand.

Chris started on how some kid picked on him at school. Tails could tell this would go on for about an hour.

"I'm going to go outside" said Tails.

Tails opened the sliding glass door and stepped out on the balcony.

It was wrapped around a corner so it had both a view of the ocean and the city. He looked down at the streets below, about 50 stories down.

He walked around the corner and looked down at the beach, it was bathed in a soft orange glow as the sun began to lower over the horizon. He could see beachgoers taking in the last bit of sun for the day.

The sea-breezes shifted towards the ocean carrying the thunderstorms back out with them. The storms will begin to dissipate in about an hour or two as the sun sets and the water begins to cool.

Tails decided to sit in the lawnchair and relax in the warmth of the evening.

Throughout the whole afternoon, Sonic had carried Sally from the Emerald Hill Zone on an island in the Carribean, across narrow strips of water between islands, and up the Florida Keys, and eventually, the everglades.

Of course, Sonic had to slow down in residential areas so his sonic boom wouldn't shatter windows.

The pair traveled fast through the everglades as the light of day was starting to dim. The orange hue reflected on their fur.

"Hey, Sal" said Sonic, "can you get the time please?" "Sure thing Sonic," Sally replied.

Sally took out her handheld supercomputer, N.I.C.O.L.E.

"N.I.C.O.L.E.," commanded Sally, "Time please."

N.I.C.O.L.E. spoke in it's monotone voice, "5:23 PM; Eastern Standard Time; 17:23 hours."

"Thanks N.I.C.O.L.E." said Sonic. "No problem Sonic, my man" said the computer. "I really need to program that out of her" said Sally.

"Its getting Dark," Sonic stated. "Well," said Sally, "We are not sleeping in a swamp full of alligators and snakes, I'll tell you that much."

"Don't be silly, Sal" said Sonic, "Miami is only 30 miles away, we will stay there and get a hotel for the night."

"I hope we get there soon," said Sally, "Im getting hungry."

"We should be there in about 10 minutes," said Sonic, "In the meantime, reach into my backpack and help yourself with some fish."

Sally had almost forgotten about the leftover fish. They ate most of the leftovers on their lunch break in Key West, they saved some for a snack later. It looked like Sally needed it right now.

Sally reached into Sonic's backpack and grabbed a slice of fish.

Before long, they were on the city limits of Miami. They could see the beachfront high-rise hotels and condos, the sparkling Atlantic waters, and streets lined with tourists.

Sonic slowed down to 50 MPH as he entered the freeway heading into the city.

Once in the city, Sally looked around. The buildings and palm trees were bathed in the soft-orange hue of evening.

"Sonic" she said as she nudged the hedgehog's shoulder, "look." She pointed at a nearby beachfront hotel with a built in restaurant.

"Good eye, Sal" said Sonic.

The hedgehog screeched to a halt in front of the hotel leaving skidmarks in the sidewalk. Sonic set Sally down and they walked into the main entrance of the hotel.

As they walked in, they caught the hotel manager's eye.

The manager came out from behind his desk, "Sonic the hedgehog? Princess Sally Acorn?" he said in excitement.

"That's us" said Sonic and Sally simultaneously. "Its such an honor having two celebrities here!" the manager replied.

"So," said Sonic, "how much is it for a room?"

The manager laughed. "How much? Why would I make you pay?" he said with a laugh. "Why would I charge the princess who gave up so much so she could liberate the planet from Robotnik and the blue hedgehog who saved us all from the eclipse canon?"

Sonic and Sally looked at each other with big smiles. "You mean, you will let us stay here for free?" asked Sally. "Yes!" the manager replied, "and dinner is on the house!"

"Follow me" said the manager. Sonic and Sally did as instructed and followed the manager out the back entrance and on to a large, outdoor, restaurant that was on a deck over the beach.

"So, what do you like?" the manager asked.

The pair pondered for a minute. Sonic opened his mouth and let out "Chilli…" Sally gently slapped him on the back of the head, "Don't even think about it, hedgehog!"

"We will have a nice lobster!" said Sally. "Excellent choice!" replied the manager, "My name is Steve, by the way!"

Steve took Sonic and Sally down past the rows of tables filled with people, humans and mobians alike.

People looked at them and called out their names. "No autographs!" said Sonic. The crowed groaned in disappointment.

Steve sat the mobian couple down at a special table at the end of the deck that overlooked the Atlantic Ocean. The hotel cast a shadow over the beach and onto the water. The setting sun to the west filled the atmosphere with an orange hue. Looking out on the horizon, they could see the darkness of night slowly building in.

Steve walked over to the kitchen. Sonic and Sally could hear him say, "Pierre, cook up our heroes a nice big lobster!" "Oui, Oui" replied the chef in his French accent.

Sonic and Sally just started talking.

Meanwhile, in Station Square, Tails was relaxed out on the balcony of Amy's apartment.

Amy opened the sliding glass door, "Tails," she said, "Dinner is ready!"

Tails got out of the lawnchair and walked inside. _Why was I outside again?_ Tails thought to himself. Chris came up to him and said, "I beat my friend's score on Super Mario Bros yesterday!"

_Oh yeah, right_ thought Tails.

Tails sat down at the dining room table along with everyone else.

Amy came over and distributed the food.

"We have a cheeseburger for Chris, fried chicken for Tails, carrot soup for Cream, fishsticks for Big, and some spaghetti for me!"

The gang just dug in to their dishes. Everyone stayed silent for a few moments, so Amy decided to start up a conversation. "Did you hear about Hurricane Noelani?" she asked.

Everyone nodded. They had all seen the carnage the hurricane had brought to Hawaii on TV.

Tails was the next to speak, "I think I heard somewhere that because of Noelani, they added a category 6 to the Saffair-Simpson scale!"

"Really, where?" asked Amy. "I think I overheard it from the neighbor's TV when I was outside," answered Tails "Anything above 195 MPH is category 6 now."

"Yeah, and they are calling Noelani the worst hurricane on record," said Big.

"I can belive it" said Tails, "Noelani made Katrina and Sandy look like jokes!"

Amy swallowed her bite, "And there was also a that tornado that tore through Minneapolis today, I swear the weather is just getting weirder every day."

"Speaking of tornado," said Chris with burger crumbs falling from his mouth, "Can we take a ride in the Tornado 1 somethime?"

"We'll see…" groaned Tails.

They could see the subject of the severe weather was upsetting Cream. "Maybe we should change the subject," suggested Amy.

Everyone agreed.

Tails changed the subject, "If my calculations are correct, Sonic and Sally should be in Station Square by tomorrow midday."

"Really?" asked Amy excitedly, "What are they doing?" "They are heading to New Mobotropolis from Emerald Hill," replied Tails, "By logic, they would follow the east coast. I believe they are somewhere around Miami right now."

"I cant wait to see my Sonikku!" said Amy in a fangirlish tone.

"Amy…" said Tails sternly, "His name is Sonic, not Sonikku. Sonic also thinks that saying 'Sonikku' makes you look like a weeaboo, and so do I."

"Sorry," said Amy, "Its become a habit." "Alright," said Tails, "Just try your best not to call him that." "I will," promised Amy.

The gang continued to munch down on dinner and discuss topics.

In Miami, Sonic and Sally were just seated and were waiting for their meal.

"So, Sonic," started Sally trying to make conversation, "What have you been up to?"

Sonic opened his mouth and started to talk, "Just a few days ago, I was supposed to go on vacation to South Island with Mom, Dad, Manic, Sonia, and Chuck" said Sonic. "And you didn't go? Why not?" Sally asked.

"I was excited about going to South Island, haven't seen the old place in a long time, you know? But when I heard about Eggman's scheme, I knew that I had to miss out on South Island to stop him. It was all worth it to see you were okay, Sal."

Sally blushed a little bit, "Oh you little hedgehog. You missed out on a nice vacation to save your friends. You are the most selfless person I know."

"Yeah," said Sonic. "So, Sonic," started Sally, "Where is your family staying?"

"Oh," said Sonic, "They got themselves a nice hotel in the Spring Yard zone. They are going to tour the ruins of the Marble and Labyrinth zones and hang out in the green hill."

A waiter came up to their table with a red, hot, steaming lobster. Sonic started to drool as the scent hit his nostrils.

Sally caught Sonic drooling, "Sonic," she whispered sternly, "Use your manners!"

Sally watched as the waiter poured melted butter on the lobster. She too, began to drool.

"Dinner, is served" said the waiter in a French tone as he set the lobster down on the table.

"Hey, kid," the waiter spoke to Sonic, "I heard you say your family was on South Island. When you are done eating, I recommend you go to your room and turn on the Weather Channel."

Sonic nodded and made a slight "uh huh" noise while drooling.

Sonic and Sally didn't hesitate, they cracked the lobster's shell and began to eat the white meat inside. They didn't say a word.

The rest of the day for Jack Hall had been typical. Looking at weather patterns and reviewing ice core data. He had his eye on Tropical Storm Mario, which had developed rapidly in the Atlantic earlier that day.

Jack looked out over DC under the dimming sky. What he was really curious to know was what the tornado that hit Minneapolis was doing so far into the cold sector. Cold core tornadoes were not unheard of, but one this strong?

Several other tornadoes were reported nearby. It just didn't add up.

Because of the presentation he was scheduled to give tomorrow, he had to spend the night at the NOAA HQ and organize his reports.

He was always on expeditions and always having to stay at the office. His work made him detached from his family, however, it had to be done.

Jason walked into the room. "Jack," he said, "I'm going home now!"

Jack just grumbled, "Lucky Jason, gets to go home to his wife and family while I am stuck here!"

Jason heard Jack. "Jack, don't beat yourself up man" Jason tried to encourage his friend.

"You don't get it, do you?" said Jack. "This job keeps me away from my family. My wife and I are only married legally, no flowers, no dinners, no getting into bed with her at night. Do you know how it feels?"

Jason tried to reassure Jack, "listen, man. There still is time for all of that…"

Jack got out of his chair and looked at Jason sternly.

"No there isn't!" Jack spoke angrily, "I missed most of Sam's life! I wasn't there to witness his first home run and victory in the little league. Guess where I was? Alaska!"

Jack sat back down and sighed, "Sam really does hate me…"

Jason stood there in the corner. "Go home, Jason" said Jack.

Jason put on his light jacket and exited the room.

Jack heard the door shut and he continued on his work.

_The cold front tracked slowly south across the nation like the leading edge of a pool of syrup._

_Thunderstorms fired up both ahead and behind the front. Supercells continued to spin up in the cold sector._

_At 6:24 PM, a waterspout touched down in Lake Michigan coming ashore into Chicago, IL as an EF-0 tornado. At 6:38, an EF-2 hit the suburbs of Milwaukee, WI. _

_At 6:49, Wausau, WI reported a wind gust of 75 MPH that downed some large trees and shredded billboards. Hail was reported as far north as Florence County, WI._

_Meteorologists were struggling to find answers to what was causing the severe storms to form well behind the front. Only time would tell._

It was now dark out, the stars were shining, and the moonlight gleamed in the waters. Sonic and Sally were almost finished eating the lobster.

Sally took a sip of water and wiped her lips with a napkin. "So, what are the plans for tomorrow?" she asked. "We should be in Station Square by midday," said Sonic, "Maybe we could spend the day there with Ames and ask Tails to give us a lift to New Mobo!"

"What I don't get is why he didn't fly us straight there," Sally said. "I dunno," replied Sonic, "we are gonna have to ask him."

After about 15 more minutes, the lobster was all gone. The pair hadn't eaten this well for a long time. Last night's chili dogs were no match for this.

Their stomachs were hard and felt as if they were full of bricks. They leaned back to let their food settle and sighed in relief.

"Sal," said Sonic, "That was better than… a million chili dogs!"

"Oh how the mighty have fallen!" Sally replied.

After about a few minutes, Steve came up to the table. "I see you two have eaten well," he said. The pair groaned while nodding in agreement.

"Well, here is the key to your room." Steve tossed a room key that read 'Room 1991' and Sonic caught it in his hand.

"Carry me…" said Sonic. "Me too…" said Sally.

"Very well," replied Steve, "Anything for my heroes!"

Steve whistled, "FRED!"

The bagboy, named Fred, walked into the scene. "Yes sir?" said Fred in his mid-puberty voice. "Carry our guests to their room!" ordered Steve.

Fred took a look at the two mobians. "This wasn't on the job application!" he said in annoyance. "Oh, yes it was," said Steve pulling out his rulebook, "Here it is. Rule 34; If Sonic The Hedgehog is here, alone or with a friend, and stuffed to the point where he/they can't walk, they will be carried to his/their room by a junior staff member. Since you are the youngest one working here, that means you!"

"You heard the man, now carry us, Fred-boy!" said Sonic in cocky voice.

Fred picked the two up and put them over his shoulders. "Hey," said Sally, "Watch the hair!"

Fred rolled his eyes, "I hate this job…!"

"Then why did you take it?" asked Sonic. "Yeah," said Sally, "Did Best Western lay you off?"

The two mobains laughed. "Good one Sal!" they gave each other a high-five. "I don't know why I am doing this…" complained Fred. "Because I am a princess and Sonic saved your ass. Now march, bagboy!"

Fred did as instructed. He carried the couple up to room 1991. He opened the door, took them inside, and put them on the twin beds. "Anything else, your majesties?"

Sonic remembered what the waiter had told him. "The remote."

Fred handed Sonic the remote angrily and stormed out of the room.

Sonic was in laughter. He turned on the TV and flipped to the Weather Channel, his laughing stopped.

Sally was still laughing. "Oh, the poor guy!" she said with a giggle. She noticed Sonic was no longer laughing. "What is it?" she asked.

Sally looked on the TV to see for herself.

On the screen was an infrared swirl of cloud with a reporter's voice playing over it;

"Tropical Storm Mario has now reached wind speeds of 62 MPH, pressure dropped by 4 millibars since the last advisory. Its track is uncertain, but the models place South Island in the middle of the cone of uncertainty. Most models predict that Mario could be a category 3 hurricane by the time South Island is affected…"

"Oh my gosh" said Sally worryingly.

"…Because of the tragedy in Hawaii yesterday when Hurricane Noelani took an unexpected turn into the heart of the island chain leaving a thousand dead, authorities are monitoring Mario closely to get South Island prepared for what may come their way"

Sonic was worried. He picked up the phone, "Sal, I have to warn them!" Sally gently placed her hand and stopped Sonic. "Its okay Sonic, they probably already know." "But what if they don't?" "They are most likely asleep right now, they will find out eventually anyways."

Sonic knew Sally was right. He placed the phone back on the base.

Sally could see the worried look in Sonic's eyes, "I am sure they will be alright. If you are that worried then, we will call them tomorrow morning."

"Thanks, Sal" said Sonic.

Sally knew Sonic should take his mind off of Mario, so she reached over to grab the remote and tuned the television to a rerun of last week's Saturday Night Live. The two giggled, but deep down, Sonic felt uncontrollable worries for his family.

Chris had left 3 hours ago shortly after dinner. Tails was relieved. Chris had blabbed about trading cards and comic books. His absence was to Tails getting a huge weight off his back.

Cream, Amy, and Big, have gone to bed. But Tails stayed up for a while in bed while on his personal laptop. Something just didn't seem right about G.U.N. with the ice cores.

Tails had an email typed out for Jack;

_Dear Jack Hall,_

_I know there is something you know that I don't. Upon my arrival in Station Square, G.U.N. picked up the ice cores. No explanation was given._

_Whatever is in those ice cores, it is something you do not want the public to see. I know the subject of climate scares some people, but what is happening with those cores makes me very suspicious that what they may contain is being kept secret to avoid public panic._

_What are you hiding from me? Does Knuckles know too?_

_-Sincerely, Miles Prower_

Tails was about to hit the "send" button. But he hesitated, he was jumping to conclusions. He may make himself look like a crazy person.

Tails instead hit "save" and shut the computer, turned out his light, lay down in the bed and drifted off to sleep.

It was midnight, and Sonic and Sally lay in their hotel beds.

By now, they were very tired. "Sonic," said Sally, "I'm going to bed"

Sonic let out a yawn, "Me too."

Sonic turned off the TV and Sally turned out the lights.

"Good night, Sal" said Sonic. "Good night, Sonic" Sally said back.

Sonic found himself in a white out with the ground covered with snow, however, he wasn't cold. It didn't take Sonic long to realize what was going on. "Awww great. Another mondo-crazy dream!"

Sonic remembered the nightmare he had last night. Now he was having a lucid dream. Two crazy dreams in a row.

Sonic heard footsteps crunching in the snow. "Who is there?" he asked. He thought for a moment, "That's right, this is a dream! Whoever you are, you are just a figment of my imagination!"

He heard a voice, "More like a figment of **my** imagination!"

He recognized the voice immediately, "Sally?!"

Sally emerged from the whiteout. "Sonic? What are you doing in my dream?"

"Could it be possible we are sharing the same dream?" Sonic asked.

"What?" said Sally, "Dream sharing is just a total fairytale. You are not Sonic, you are not real!"

"Yes I am real!" Sonic stated. "NO, you are NOT!" said Sally, "Great, I am arguing with my own mind here…" she finished.

A familiar voice spoke in the whiteout, "The hedgehog is right"

"Who was that?" Sally asked. A green ball of light hovered in front of them. The ball materialized into a small dog creature with white hair.

"Chip!?" Sonic and Sally said simultaneously. "Yes, it is me" Chip said.

"Sonic, it is good to see you again, old friend" said the light gaia dog. "I have the power to enter, and manipulate dreams. Those attached to the Chaos Energy, like you, have the ability to share dreams with someone within a 1 mile radius."

"That is good to hear," said Sonic, "but why did you bring us here?"

"I cant say, but I can show you. Follow me."

Sonic and Sally followed Chip through the blizzard. After a few minutes, they came up to a large snow drift.

Chip instructed them to climb the drift, so they did. The sight that they met once they were over the drift took their breaths away.

It was a large city that looked like Old Mobotropolis, only about 3 times bigger. The houses were almost completely buried by snow and large drifts were formed on the buildings. Layers of ice and frost blanketed the sides of the buildings making them white.

"What is this place?" Sonic asked. "Chip, what is this?"

Chip hesitated. "I can not tell you, for I don't know. This is all the chaos energy will reveal to me at this time. All I know, is that this is important."

Sally looked at Chip, "Why is this important?"

"The chaos energy hasn't revealed any information on that to me either. I will see you next time a vision is presented. For now, I must go."

Chip faded away.

Sonic looked at Sally. "This is the point where we usually wake up. Just to prove that this experienced was indeed real, we will shout out "32ChiliDog" when we wake up."

"Okay," said Sally.

The dream quickly fell apart and faded away as Sonic began to wake up.

The sunlight hit the hedgehogs face and he opened his eyes. He sprang up, and so did Sally. At the same time, both of them yelled "32CHILIDOGS!"


End file.
